Pretoria – Veeran Palan (34) and Edwina Bonita Elbidia Norris (28) were of Friday sentenced to 10 and six years imprisonment respectively after the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court found them guilty of human trafficking, keeping a brothel, procuring women for sexual purposes, living off proceeds of crime as well as kidnapping.
The two were arrested in July 2013 after they lured two women from Cape Town and promised them an employment opportunity at a hotel. When the victims arrived they were taken to a house in Oslo Beach where they were told that they were going to work as prostitutes to repay the money for the bus tickets which they used from Cape Town.
The two women protested however despite their remonstration, they were booked out to clients against their will. Two days later their kidnappers were arrested.
The Acting Head of the Hawks Major General Ntlemeza congratulated the investigating officer Detective Warrant Officer Allan Horn for his outstanding detective and investigation work. “Warrant Officer Horn was commended by the Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Director for Public Prosecutions for his above par work ethic. We applaud his excellent investigating skills that led to the imprisonment of these human traffickers. He is a model detective and we would like to see more thorough detective work coming out of our investigators”, said Ntlemeza.
